


Syal Antilles and the Mystery of the Invisible Thief

by ami_ven



Category: Star Wars Legends: X-Wing Series - Aaron Allston & Michael Stackpole
Genre: Babysitting, Gen, Humor, Mystery, Rogues & Wraiths Fic-A-Thon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21728371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: Wes and Hobbie are babysitting, but Syal is really the one in charge.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Syal Antilles and the Mystery of the Invisible Thief

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ user "w_janson" for the Rogues & Wraiths Fic-a-Thon and originally posted in 2013

“Okay, there are meals you can reheat in the cook unit, she has plenty of clean clothes, bedtime is twenty-one hundred hours since it’s not a school night, and there’s a list of holo-com numbers on the—”

“Wedge,” interrupted Wes, frowning. “We have watched your kids before, you know. Both of them at once, even, not just Syal.”

“Yes, I know,” Wedge replied. “You’ve watched the girls for a few hours, while Iella and I were still on the planet. But Iella and Myri are on their mother-daughter camping trip until next week, and this is the first time she’s really left me with Syal for any length of time since Myri was born, so…”

“Wedge,” said Hobbie, with an overly-dramatic frown. “Don’t you trust us?”

“Do I trust you to watch my tail when we’re flying in a dogfight? Absolutely. Do I trust either of you to be significantly more responsible than my eight-year-old? Not a chance.”

Wes pouted. “That’s terrible, Wedge. True, but terrible.”

“Dad, what are you still doing here?” asked Syal, coming out into the front room. “You’re going to be late for your meeting with the admiral!”

“I’m going,” he said, and leaned over to kiss the top of her head. “Be good for your uncles. Don’t let them do anything you wouldn’t do.”

Wes pouted again. “Sure, ruin our fun.”

“Bye, Daddy!” Syal called after him, then shut the apartment door. “I know how to use the cook unit if you’ve forgotten again, Uncles Wes. But unless you need me for anything, I’ll be in my room.”

“Doing something you’d normally get grounded for?” Wes asked, a little hopefully.

Syal rolled her eyes. “Reading.”

“Anything good?” asked Hobbie.

“A new mystery series,” she said. “Well, new to me, anyway. It’s about a human girl living on Coruscant during the Old Republic, and solves mysteries with her two best friends.”

“That sounds interesting,” said Hobbie.

“That sounds _boring_ ,” said Wes. “But it gives me a great idea. Get your coats!”

“Oh, no,” said Hobbie and Syal, together.

A few minutes later, they were standing on the pedestrian skyway outside the apartment complex. “What are we doing out here, Uncle Wes?” asked Syal.

“Adventuring!” said Wes. “You can’t just sit around and read all day, Syal. You have to get out there and _do_ things.”

She frowned. “Like what?”

“Like solve a real mystery. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“Wes…” began Hobbie, but his wingman had already started off down the walkway.

“He takes a lot of looking after, doesn’t he, Uncle Hobbie?” asked Syal.

Hobbie smiled. “You have no idea, kid,” he said, then held out his hand. “Come on, we’d better go after him.”

They caught up with Wes at a row of food stalls, chatting with an elderly Sullustian woman. “Hey,” he said. “I found it.”

Hobbie frowned at the sign above the nearest stall. “Everything here is deep-fried. Shouldn’t we be setting a better example of healthy eating?”

“Not the food, Hobbie,” said Wes. “This nice lady has a mystery for us to solve.”

“Really?” asked Syal.

“Yep. According to her, things have been going missing from several of the stalls along this skyway, but nobody’s seen anything. Most of the times, it was when there wasn’t even anybody nearby.”

Syal frowned thoughtfully. “What kinds of things have been taken?”

“An excellent question,” said Wes. “Food, mostly. But a few other things, too, like a ladle and a dough cutter.”

“And they’re sure it’s not just kids or something?” asked Hobbie.

“Nobody was around,” Wes reminded him. “So, Little Miss Detective, what do we do next?”

“We watch,” Syal decided. “You said things were taken at different times, right? So that means the thief keeps coming back. If we stay nearby and watch, maybe we can catch him the next time he tries to take something.”

“Good thinking,” said Hobbie. “The tapcaf across the way has seats outside, where we’ll be able to see.”

“Watching?” said Wes. “I was thinking we’d do more clue-following, bad guy-trailing… yeah, okay, I’ll get us some drinks.”

“Uncle Wes!” hissed Syal, several hours later. “Are you asleep?”

“No,” he mumbled, snapping up from where he’d been leaning on his elbow, then glaring at Hobbie. “This is worse than if we’d let her stay home and read.”

“But, Uncle Wes!” said Syal. “We’re solving a real mystery!”

As her uncle had gotten more bored with their ‘stakeout’, Syal had gotten more interested, even asking the tapcaf waiter for a few pieces of flimsy so she could take notes.

“Well, we haven’t exactly made much progress,” said Hobbie. “We haven’t seen anything at all.”

Syal sighed. “I know. But maybe we could— Wait, Uncle Hobbie, look!”

In the half-light of sunset, still clinging to the edges of the skyway, a small shadow swooped down from a decorative overhang on the apartment above, snagging a pastry from the display basket and vanishing again.

“A hawk-bat!” cried Syal. “Uncle Wes, Uncle Hobbie, did you see that?”

“We saw,” said Hobbie.

“Huh,” said Wes. “Mystery solved. We’ll call Coruscant Security and let them know about the hawk-bat thief. They’ll send someone to get everyone’s stuff back, and we can go home.”

“And get something to eat,” added Hobbie. “I’m starving.”

While Wes called Coruscant Security, Hobbie and Syal stopped at one of the food stalls for some Ithorian take-out. In the lobby of the Antilles’ apartment building, they met Wedge standing near the bank of ‘lifts.

“Daddy, you’re back!” said Syal, running to hug him.

“Hi, sweetheart,” he said, hugging her back. “I managed to finish up early. Did you three have fun this afternoon?”

“Oh, absolutely,” said Hobbie.

“We solved a mystery!” said Syal.

“Actually,” said Wes, as they got into the ‘lift. “I just got off the holo-com with some animal rescue people that Coruscant Security brought in. It seems that our hawk-bat thief was a mama, and so I told them that Syal would watch all the baby hawk-bats while Mom is at her hearing and—”

“Wait, it was what and you said she’d do what?” asked Wedge.

Syal laughed. “He’s only teasing, Dad. The hawk-bat thief was a male.”

“Yeah, Wes,” said Hobbie. “Couldn’t you tell?”

Wedge grinned. “Let’s go upstairs, and you can tell me the whole story over dinner…”

THE END


End file.
